9:05:15 PM | 3/4/2008
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in his recent statement has called for cutting public investment and appealed to people to tighten belts as parts of the seven measures to tame inflation to stabilize the macroeconomy.
“The government of Vietnam will give the top priority to controlling inflation to stabilize macroeconomy so as not to allow it to affect local production, people’s lives and the economic growth in the medium and long-term” Mr. Dung noted.
The government said on its Web site that it will submit its adjustment of economic and inflation targets this year to the National Assembly for approval.
The seven measures the government will take are (1) tightening the monetary policy, but ensure liquidity for the economy, (2) cutting public investment and expenditures of state agencies, (3) focusing on industrial and agricultural production, (4) ensuring the supply and demand for foods and requesting no increases of prices of electricity, coal, petroleum products, cement, fertilizer, clean water, medicines, air and train tickets (5) calling on state agencies to cut 10 per cent of administrative expenditures, companies to double check to reduce costs and people to save energy and materials, (6) tightening state control over the markets and prices to prevent speculations particularly the essential goods and (7) adopting measures to ensure social and security.
In the context of the global economic slowdown, Vietnam’s GDP growth rate was 7.4 per cent in the first quarter, consumer prices were up 9.19 per cent compared with December, and trade deficit was more than US$7 billion, accounting for 56.5 per cent of the country’s exports value.
As a WTO membership, Vietnam’s economy is now more open to the world economy with total import-export values having surpassed 160 per cent of its GDP, of which imports represented 90 per cent of the GDP, Dung added.
Between 2006 and 2007, epidemics and natural disasters cost Vietnam VND33.6 trillion.
(VietnamNet, Government’s Website)
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